Nigel Caldwell

Supply management: is it a discipline?

Purpose – To examine management literature for guidance on what constitutes a discipline. To examine supply management publications to determine whether the field constitutes a discipline or an emerging discipline. To contribute a structured evaluation to the body of supply management theory/discipline development knowledge. Design/methodology/approach – Literature review of what constitutes a discipline and an initial assessment of whether supply management is a discipline. Development of research questions used to design tests, using combinations of qualitative pattern matching, journal quality rankings, and social science citations index impact factor. Application of the tests, to evaluate field coherence, quality and the existence of a discipline-debate, to determine whether supply management is an emerging discipline. Findings – An initial literature review finds supply management not to be a discipline, as the field lacks quality of theoretical development and discussion, and coherence. Tests for increasing evidence of coherence, quality and impact yield positive results, indicating that supply management is progressing in its theoretical development. The test findings combined with the existence of the start of a discipline-debate indicate that supply management should be judged to be an emerging discipline. Originality/value – Drawing from the management literature, the paper provides a unique structured evaluation of the field of supply management, finding it not to be a discipline, but showing evidence of being an emerging discipline.

Examining buyer‐supplier relationships within a service sector context

Purpose – The primary aim of this research is to explore buyer‐supplier relationships within a service sector context.Design/methodology/approach – To address the primary aim, both quantitative and qualitative approaches were utilised. A questionnaire was issued to selected buyer and supplier groups in order to determine relationship issues associated with insurance claims. The questionnaire was complemented by a number of semi‐structured interviews with buyers and suppliers across each spend category.Findings – The results of this research indicate that there are significant gaps between buyer and supplier expectations concerning how relationships should evolve and that the issues of power and trust will need to be explored in greater depth if relationships are to be optimised.Practical implications – This research is of practical use to service sector companies attempting to examine how to develop effective buyer‐supplier relationships. It is of particular use to service buyer operations within the insu...

Contracting for complex performance in markets of few buyers and sellers: the case of military procurement

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to identify and review the impact and challenges of new contractual arrangements on UK military procurement and other limited or oligopolistic markets. Design/methodology/approach – The unit of analysis is the large-scale procurement programme. Two cases of major military platforms (naval and air defence) examine through-life maintenance or “contracting for availability” and build theory on procuring complex performance (PCP). Propositions are developed from the literature then tested and extended from the case analysis, supported by 35 interviews from buyer and supplier representatives. Findings – Examining UK military platform procurement reveals a perspective not present in fast moving high volume supply chains. In oligopolistic markets such as defence, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) represents a market of one, seeking ambitious and non-incremental innovation from the prime contractor during the procurement process. The new contractual arrangements show an increasing sh...

Procuring complex performance : studies of innovation in product-service management

Introduction. Procuring Complex Performance: Studies of Innovation in Product-Service Management Mickey Howard and Nigel Caldwell Part 1: Conceptual Underpinnings 1. Contracts, Relationships and Integration: Towards a Model of the Procurement of Complex Performance Michael Lewis and Jens Roehrich 2. Commissions and Concessions: A Brief History of Contracting for Complexity in the Public Sector Gary L. Sturgess 3. Contracts and Incentives in the Construction Sector Will Hughes, Wisdom Kwawu and Jan-Bertram Hillig 4. Complex Performance, Process Modularity and the Spatial Configuration of Production Luis Araujo and Martin Spring Part 2: Application and Cases 5. Business Models for Complex Performance: Procuring Aerospace Engineering Design Services Martin Spring and Katy Mason 6. Learning to Procure Complex Performance: A Comparative Study of Highways Agencies in the UK and Netherlands Andreas Hartmann, Andrew Davies and Lars Frederiksen 7. Supply Management in Naval Defence: The Case for PCP Mickey Howard and Joe Miemczyk 8. Delivering Innovation in Hospital Design: Finance, Contracts and the Institutional Context James Barlow et. al. 9. Learning to Deliver a Mega Project: The Case of Heathrow Terminal 5. Tim Brady and Andrew Davies Part 3: Lessons and Implications 10. Product-Service Innovation: Reframing the Buyer-Customer Landscape John Bessant, Mickey Howard and Nigel Caldwell 11. Lessons in Procuring Complex Services Wendy van der Valk and Finn Wynstra 12. Conclusions and Commentary Nigel Caldwell and Mickey Howard

Investigating innovation in complex health care supply networks: an initial conceptual framework

This paper explores the constraints and enablers of the process of innovation within the context of UK health care supply networks. Building on a comprehensive literature review of established and recent innovation and supply network research, the paper presents three levels of supply network analysis: sector level supply networks, focal organization supply networks and dyadic supply relationships. The paper reports on the first round of fieldwork conducted with 12 different health care organizations. The three different levels are applied during analysis and the findings are considered in terms of the key themes that have emerged and the practical and theoretical challenges that they represent.

Transparency in supply relationships: concept and practice

This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

Incentives and Contracting for Availability: Procuring Complex Performance

Procuring complex performance where both the performance required and the infrastructure to support the requirement are complex, is the current frontier on procurement knowledge. Trends to bundle contracts for products and services together exemplify the challenge. These product-service bundles take the form of contracts for the use of the product (e.g., including long term maintenance and support) rather than just the product as an artefact. Such contracts bind a Prime contractor and the customer into complex long term agreements. Contractual incentive mechanisms have long been used to align the interests of customer and supplier in such projects. This chapter explores the use and role of incentives in complex engineering support environment, drawing on a case study from recent research on availability contracting to support fighter jets. The chapter presents the challenge to the conventional incentive mechanisms inherent in the combination of flexibility and cost control required in contracting for jet fighters availability.

Implementing value‐transparency in supply relations

Purpose – To explore and identify the strategic approaches firms may follow in their pursuit of value transparency (VT) in inter‐organisational relations in supply networks.Design/methodology/approach – Through the use of game theory an understanding of the difficulties of co‐operation and information transfer is developed. Game theory and marginal analysis facilitate an advanced application of VT.Findings – While the article acknowledges the limitations of prescriptive precision in strategy matters, it is not proposed that firms would follow any single part of the outlined strategies. However, through rational analysis of the strategic options presented it may be possible to foresee potential negative outcomes, and through structuring undesirable scenarios managers may be able to reduce the risk of their occurrence.Practical implications – A model is proposed that aids firms in the selection of supply partners for VT and VT modes. Recognising that certain conditions will be more likely to support a more ...

Using risk sharing contracts for supply chain risk mitigation

Development of a novel supply chain risk sharing contract to mitigate demand uncertainty and price volatility.Multiple buyer-supplier power and dependence scenarios to reflect leverages involved in the decision-making.Research contributes by providing a relational perspective into dynamics of supply chain design and collaboration. The paper aims to understand buyer-supplier power and dependence scenarios following a risk sharing contract. The study develops a supply chain risk sharing contract to mitigate demand uncertainty and price volatility related risks in a globalised business environment. An integer programming model is developed and analysed following an automotive case study to generate insights into buyer-supplier relationships. Multiple buyer-supplier power and dependence scenarios are considered to reflect the possible leverages involved in the decision-making. The situational strength evaluated through buyer-supplier power and dependence illuminates the inherent complexity in contract negotiation. Thus there is an evident need to develop risk sharing contracts for mitigating global risks. The developed relationship framework and risk sharing contract model are expected to help SC managers in better understanding behavioural aspects during contract negotiations. The risk sharing contract model proposed here also contributes to a potentially novel perspective on existing theory in buyer-supplier power and dependence by providing a relational perspective on the dynamics of supply chain design and collaboration.

Impact of e-business on perceived supply chain risks

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the risks managers and individual supply chains perceive from e-business. Design/methodology/approach – This research takes a long-term, staged view of the risks managers and individual supply chains perceive from e-business. By taking a two-stage approach, investigating four supply chains at a three year interval, the research considers perceived risks from e-business and the extent to which these risks obtained. Findings – E-business has the potential to deliver substantial benefits, but it also involves new and different risks. This research finds that small firms (SMEs) adopted a “watching brief” rather than implemented e-business. Between the two studies it emerges that e-business can support rather than detract from inter-organisational relationships. Global forces are in evidence in terms of low cost competition, but low cost competitors are not e-enabled. Research limitations/implications – Limitations, pragmatism and opportunism in the sampling is acknowledged. For example, the work and concepts that led to the expectation of e-business dominating and decimating industrial supply chains may have been based in chains more open to external forces than the ones examined here. Further research is required that identifies the minimum critical mass necessary to retain national manufacturing capacity at a chain or sector level, and empirical work is needed on the suggested link between supply chain stability and certainty of payment. The cases here are based on four UK supply chains, so various chain forms are likely to have been excluded. Originality/value – This research, by taking a staged approach and going back to the same chain and reviewing perceived risks, identifies how the build up of numerous – but small – events, for example factory closures, can aggregate over time to be just as significant as high profile, headline-worthy risks. Methods that produce a snapshot such as a one-off survey may be inadequate for fully exploring an area such as risk. Especially if the risks are hard to assess and are biased toward high profile events – catastrophic risks rather than accumulations of smaller, less noticeable risks.